This book provides a comprehensive overview on biotechnological applications of unicellular and multicellular fungi in a variety of industrial branches. Targeted genetic and metabolic engineering of fungi allows production of native and transgenic enzymes and proteins in industrial scales. Those most prominently find application in biorefineries for the production of value-added chemicals and biofuels, in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in biomedicine. Each chapter is dedicated to applications and potential beneficial use of particular strains of yeasts and filamentous fungi and their produced biomolecules. The book targets researchers from both academia and industry and graduate students working in microbial biotechnology.

An ideal starting point for any research study of filamentous fungi. • Incorporates the latest findings from such disciplines as physiology, taxonomy, genomics, molecular biology and cell biology. • Begins with an historical perspective, cell morphology and taxonomy, and moves on to such topics as cell growth, development, metabolism, and pathogenesis. • Presents the full range of the fungal kingdom and covers important topics as saprophytes, pathogens and endophytes. • Serves as a recommended text for graduate and undergraduate students.

This volume brings together detailed practical guidance from experienced researchers using genetic, genomic, cellular and biochemical methods, to attempt to determine the functions of genes and how they contribute to the biology of fungi.

Biotechnology of Filamentous Fungi: Technology and Products provides a comprehensive discussion of the molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry of filamentous fungi. It also deals with general principles of biochemical engineering such as process design and scaleup. The book's main emphasis, however, is on the commercial significance of filamentous fungi. The book highlights the unique aspects of filamentous fungi along with those aspects common to most microorganisms studied in industries that use biotechnology. Filamentous fungi can generate a wide range of industrial products including primary metabolites such as organic acids, secondary metabolites such as ß-lactam antibiotics, nonantibiotic drugs, and enzymes for use in food production. Whole organisms such as mushrooms can be used as well as organisms used as insecticides and herbicides. Filamentous fungi also qualify as potential hosts for the secretion of certain heterogeneous proteins such as mammalian proteins. However, not all things related to fungi are beneficial. Mycotoxins products by fungi can be lethal to humans; there is also a need to develop antifungal agents to destroy fungi that can kill animals and plants. These topics are important aspects of the biotechnology of filamentous fungi and are dealt with in this text.

The submersed cultivation of organisms in sterile containments or fermenters has become the standard manufacturing procedure, and will remain the gold standard for some time to come. This book thus addresses submersed cell culture and fermentation and its importance for the manufacturing industry. It goes beyond expression systems and integrally investigates all those factors relevant for manufacturing using suspension cultures. In so doing, the contributions cover all industrial cultivation methods in a comprehensive and comparative manner, with most of the authors coming from the industry itself. Depending on the maturity of the technology, the chapters address in turn the expression system, basic process design, key factors affecting process economics, plant and bioreactor design, and regulatory aspects.

This volume is an international compilation for biotechnologists of data on the location and use of filamentous fungi. The volume provides details of the location and scope of major culture collections around the world holding fungi; information on how to access their data, administration and safety, identification, culture and media recipes, preservation, patents, specialist services and international organization.

The filamentous fungi are perhaps unique in the diversity of their metabolic activities. This includes biosynthetic as well as degradative activities, many is to provide an of which are of industrial interest. The objective of this text up-to-date and broad review which emphasizes the genetic and molecular biological contribution in the field of fungal biotechnology. This text begins with an overview of the tools and methodologies involved which, to a large extent, have been developed in the model filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans and subsequently have been extended to commercially important fungi. This is followed by a chapter which provides a compilation of genes isolated from commercial fungi and their present status with respect to structure, function and regulation. Chapters 3 and 4 highlight the degradative powers of filamentous fungi. First, a discussion of what is known regarding the molecular genetics of fungi and the genes and enzymes involved in the beverage and food industries. This has an oriental flavour, reflecting the tremendous importance of fungi in traditional Chinese and Japanese food production. An account of lignocellulose degradation by filamentous fungi follows, illustrating the potential of fungi to utilize this substance as a renewable energy source. The ability of fungi to produce high-value foreign proteins is reviewed in chapters 5 and 6. Chymosin production, in particular, represents a good example of high-level yields being obtained, such as to warrant commercial production.

Ten articles provide an overview of the recently flowering research into the genetics and molecular biology of fungus species that are economically significant in industry. The contributors, from a variety of disciplines, report on work in such areas as industrial enzymes, antibiotics, toxins, heter

SINCE THE EARLY DAYS OF MICROBIOLOGY IT HAS BEEN KNOWN THAT, during their life cycles, microorganisms exhibit developmental changes in common with other organisms. In the last decade interest in this aspect of microbiology has developed greatly, and research findings have provided an understanding of the genetic, molecular and biochemical bases of development. An important stimulus in this research has been the realis ation that microbial development, in its various forms, provides interest ing model systems that have relevance to a much wider understanding of the developmental processes in higher eukaryotes. Many undergraduate and other courses in microbiology reflect these developments. Up to now, the only source material for these courses has been symposia publications, or books of a more specialised nature and at an advanced level. The aim in writing this book, which is based on a series of undergraduate lectures given at the University of Nottingham, was to bring together the relevant aspects of the biology of microorganisms, in particular the bacteria and fungi. The algae and protozoa have been excluded, partly because of the limits of space and partly because they are very different from the bacteria and fungi in most aspects of their biology.

Yeasts and filamentous fungi need to cope with stress, whether growing in the laboratory or in the natural environment, whether victims or offenders in interactions with other organisms. These considerations are discussed in this volume that coveres stress in the broad sense, within the context of mycology.* Includes discussions of the stresses associated with organism-organism interactions and stress under controlled conditions* Anthropogenic stress towards fungi in the environment and the impacts that such stressors may have on different organisms and communities in the wild are explained* Encompasses a breadth of information from the bigger picture of stress effects on fungi in their natural habitats, to the recent advances in underlying molecular-level understanding